SAN FERNANDO VALLEY (Los Angeles), Sept 13: Emergency crews found more victims early Saturday, boosting the death toll to 17, as they delicately picked apart the mangled wreckage of a commuter train that collided head-on with a freight train on the same track in Los Angeles.

More victims were feared trapped in the wrecked Metrolink commuter train. About 135 people were injured.

The impact rammed the Metrolink engine backward into a passenger car, which rested on its side with the engine still inside it early Saturday. Two other Metrolink cars remained upright. Crews had to put out a fire under part of the train.

During the night, the teams used hydraulic jacks to keep the passenger car from falling over and other specialized rescue equipment to gently tear apart the metal.

Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said the goal was to eliminate every piece of metal and gradually work down into the passenger spaces, but by midnight crews were just getting through the top deck of the double-decker train.

“There’s so much damage, we need to wait for heavier equipment,” Ruda said early Saturday.

Officials say there were 222 people on the Metrolink train and four Union Pacific employees aboard the freight train when they collided on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley.

The cause of the collision had not been determined.

“This is the worst accident I’ve ever seen,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. “Clearly the injuries are going to mount and so are the fatalities.”

Asked how the two trains ended up on the same track, Steven Kulm, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration: “We are nowhere near having any information on that.”—AP